Technology
Discover facts about technology. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Technology
One of the early web’s photos was a CERN girl band
In 1992, a picture of Les Horribles Cernettes made its way onto CERN’s early web. The singers performed playful songs about life around particle physicists.…
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Sharp Corporation released the J-SH04 in Japan during 2000, creating the first commercially successful camera phone
Its 0.11-megapixel camera could send photos over a cellular network, making it possible to share pictures immediately rather than just store them on the phone.
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Why the original Game Boy had a green screen
The greenish-yellow screen offered strong contrast for black pixels while using very little battery power—a practical trade-off for a handheld device.
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Apollo's software leader fought for code to count as engineering
Margaret Hamilton led the team responsible for the spacecraft's onboard flight software. Calling the work 'software engineering' emphasized that it deserved…
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Some ergonomic keyboards are entirely split into two pieces
Separating the left and right key clusters lets you position each hand farther apart instead of keeping both on one flat keyboard.
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Crysis Warhead's anti-piracy prank fired chickens
Reports of improperly cracked copies described guns launching chickens instead of useful bullets. The game could appear to run while making combat absurdly…
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An uneven rhythm can make a boss fight feel unsettled
A soundtrack does not need to get louder to feel tense. Uneven beats and unexpected accents can interrupt the regular pulse your ear wants to settle into.…
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Why Bluetooth keeps your earbuds on a short leash
Bluetooth’s low-power design helps preserve earbud batteries, but distance and obstacles can still interrupt the connection.
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Polyurethane bubbles compress and slowly regain original form
Viscoelastic polyurethane foam compresses under your weight, then slowly springs back when the pressure is removed. That slow rebound is what gives memory…
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Why random data can grow when compressed
Compression works by finding patterns, so random bytes offer little to shrink. The archive can even grow because it needs space to store its own overhead.
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Your left hand does most of the typing
On a QWERTY keyboard, several common letters—including A, E, T, S, and R—sit on the left side. English typists use their left hand for roughly 56% of…
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Closed cycle gas expansion drives pistons via external heat
A Stirling engine uses a sealed amount of gas: heating it makes it expand and push a piston, while cooling it makes it contract and pull the piston back. Its…
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Demodulation rips usable data out of carrier waves
A receiver separates a signal’s information from its carrier wave by detecting the wave’s changes and translating them into usable data.
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How a tiny XML file can unleash a billion laughs
An XML entity expansion attack nests definitions so each “lol” expands into many more. Parsing the tiny file can create an enormous amount of text and…
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A quartz watch counts to 32,768 to tell you one second passed
That frequency is 2 raised to the fifteenth power. Electronic circuits can halve the pulse rate fifteen times to turn the crystal's rapid vibration into a…
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Pepe the Frog began as a laid-back comic character
Before becoming a controversial internet symbol, Pepe was a laid-back character in the comic Boy's Club, known for saying “feels good man” while using the…
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A smart contract can be tricked into paying before it finishes counting
In a reentrancy attack, one contract calls another, which calls back before the first has updated its records. The attacker can exploit the stale state to…
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How astronauts add water to dinner
Freeze-dried meals are sealed in bags with small valves, so a dispenser can inject hot water without letting floating droplets escape into the spacecraft.
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The Linux operating system with a Hannah Montana theme
Hannah Montana Linux was a fan-made, themed Linux distribution based on Kubuntu. Under the purple artwork was a real desktop operating system capable of…
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Nintendo DS Lite offered four locked brightness levels
You had to cycle through four fixed settings, with no smooth brightness slider—so the available choices could feel either too dim or too bright.
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The weeds on your socks inspired Velcro
Its hook-and-loop design mimics burrs: tiny hooks catch onto loops, much like weeds that cling to socks.
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First commercial color televisions debuted in 1953
The RCA CT-100 was so expensive, and color programming so scarce, that few people bought one for more than a decade.
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Nutcrackers were once more than decorations
Their lever-action jaws were designed to crack hard nutshells, not just decorate a mantel.
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Keyboard caps become greasy and shiny
Repeated typing wears down the textured surface of keycaps, leaving them smooth and shiny; oils from your hands add to the greasy look.
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